Hepatitis B virus reactivation in HBsAg-negative patients is associated with emergence of viral strains with mutated HBsAg and reverse transcriptase.

Background/aims: Virological factors associated with hepatitis B virus reactivation (HBV-R), following chemotherapy for cancer in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative patients, are not well known.

Materials And Methods: HBV strains from 16 patients presenting HBV-R following chemotherapy were studied and compared to those obtained from 51 HBV chronically-infected patients.

Results: HBsAg variability was significantly increased within the major hydrophilic region, the a determinant and the C-terminal region.

Hepatitis C virus of subtype 2l in Marseille, southeastern France.

The rate of eradication of chronic hepatitis C considerably increases with direct-acting antiviral agents, particularly hepatitis C virus (HCV) polymerase inhibitors. While implementing full-length HCV NS5B polymerase sequencing in our clinical microbiology laboratory, we identified atypical HCV sequences, classified as subtype 2l, from 2 patients. HCV-2l NS5B polymerase sequences were detected from 5 and 14 additional patients by screening our laboratory hepatitis virus sequence database and the NCBI GenBank sequence database.

DNA-repair and carcinogen-metabolising enzymes genetic polymorphisms as an independent risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in Caucasian liver-transplanted patients.

We studied polymorphisms of three genes, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase1A7 (UGT1A7), Glutathione-S-transferaseM1 (GSTM1) and X-Ray Cross Complementing group 1 (XRCC1), involved in detoxification of xenobiotics or DNA-repair in a population of 133 liver-transplanted patients, including 56 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 77 without HCC, and in 89 healthy controls originating from the south of France. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, among liver-transplanted patients, interactions between XRCC1-G/G or -G/A and GSTM1-nul polymorphisms were independently associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (p interaction=0.027) concurrently with increasing age (p<0.

[Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy secondary to JC virus infection after liver transplantation and treatment of recurrent hepatitis C].

Progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy due to JC virus is a rare complication of liver transplantation. Only four cases have already been described in the literature. This disease is difficult to differentiate from leucoencephalopathy associated with immunosuppressive drugs such as cyclosporin or tacrolimus.